I have not done much home made propeller building but decided to make this hardwood Sopwith Camel propeller in 1/2 scale. Started by laminating a blank with wood glue and clamping for 24 hours.

I drilled the prop shaft hole first and laid out some referance stations based upon the drawing I had. First step was to saw out the blank into a final profile (shape). Next I sawed and sanded the bottom surfaces. Then I laid out the top cuts and sawed away the excess material. A final airfoil shape was then sanded into the top surface.

I still have to final sand, drill the hub holes for the drive pins, stain, and seal. It is pretty much balanced too, BTW. Came out pretty well for a first attempt. A few photos showing some processing and size proportions.

You learn something everyday. This project lead me to discover that one of the inventions that the Wright Brothers gave us, but hardly ever get credit for, was the Propeller. Most aircraft designers of the time thought of the propeller as paddles on a shaft. The Wright Brothers were the ones to figure out that a propeller is a wing that rotates. As such, the shape needs to have an airfoil like a wing. Their wind tunnel tests lead to this discovery. A modern propeller is in the mid 80% effiency range, and the Wright Brothers first prop was 80% efficient. Pretty amazing given the infancy of flight back then.

Here is another project I just completed. A Mirage 2000-C jet, with a 7 1/2" wingspan. It weighs 24 grams ready to fly, and is 1/48th scale. This airplane uses a 7mm motor in a 22mm EDF fan unit. Who ever said those old plastic models you built as a kid couldn't fly across the basketball court at you Elementary School, LOL.

More to come on this one. Awaiting pilot and maiden. A foamie rendition of a fairly popular and famous for it's time, design. Early 1970's, and powered with a .15 to .25 IC, Dave Robelen's Pronto. Original was 48" span, balsa, covered in Monocote, and Clark 'Y', 3 channel R/E/T.

Mine is a full 4 channel, A/E/R/T with a 39" span, fully symetrical wing. Electric motivation with the BPHobbies BP-21 V2 motor, 1400KV swinging a 9"x6" SF by APC, is pushing over a 1:1 thrust to weight ratio, using a 2 cell, 1000mah, 30c LiPo, and weighing in just over 19 ounces. Mostly fff blue foam, but covered in fiberglass and silkspan with Polycrylic as the bonding agent. Painted with craft paints, and clear coated with more Polycrylic.

Eye popping color scheme is putting a smile on my face. Dave designed the original to mimic the looks of a real airplane (ultra lights of the era), but to be easy to build, and fun but easy to fly. He didn't skimp on performance or aerobatic capabilities either, as those that build originals claim it flew as good as anything back then. Many were built to compete in Fun Flys of the time because it did fly so well. I have built other planes designed by Dave Roblelen, and never disappointed.

Just thought I would add a section of my blog to share some scale details on some of my builds. You may check back at a later date as I will add some things as time goes on and more airplanes are outfitted with cool little extras.

Most everything is wooden dowel, toothpick, balsa, foam, straight pin, paper, aluminum sheet, and plywwod or plastic sheet bits. Paint is usually regular craft paints, often clear coated at the end for protection. sometimes a bit of fiberglass using epoxy or CA is ultilized, especially recently.

Adding a new plane to my blog pages. This was a quick but random build I did to utilize the wing skin baking jig you see below (in my blog).

It is a House of Frog Plan, originally designed as an 18" wingspan Free Flight model. This is from the Senior Series, called the Raven. Do a Google search for House Of Frog, in the UK, run by Mike Stewart. it has many wonderfully preserved plans from yesteryear.

Mine is doubled (200%) and has a 36" wingspan. I am using a Blue Wonder Clone (Keda 1700kv) motor, 12A ESC, 800mah 2 cell LiPo, 30c, and an APC 8" x 3.8" SF, or 8" x 6" SF prop. My all up weight came out to 11.1 ounces RTF with battery, pilot, and all.

Material is 98% blue core fff, and packing tape coloring. A small bit of plywood and skewers, a touch of craft paint, and good to go. R/E/T and undercambered wing.

EDIT: Maiden accomplished 12-Mar-12, from the stret in front of the house. She flys well, ample power. I can loop unlimited amounts of loops from level flight, and can hover, but not setup with controls for that. Rudder throw set to 30 degrees, 40% expotential and will possible tune that down. Elevator set about 18 degree, 30% expotential and might be a bit sensitive for some, but I like it. Yank and crank 3 channel control is quite responsive. Tail up and off the ground in 10 feet at 1/2 throttle, lands very slow if desired. Well worth the converson I'd say.

After many years of baking wing skins on my trusty wooden form, I took some time to make a wooden, clad in aluminum form to help speed the process.

The result is wonderful. Baking time so far is about 30% less, but I need to experiment with some other temperatures and times maybe. The loading and unloading process is way faster, plus more enjoyable and consistant. Even better the cooling down process is faster with aluminum than wood of course.

Pictures should show how it's made, put together, and how it functions. Now I can make under camber wings, and pre form Clark 'Y' type, plus symetrical panels for my wing builds that I require such structure.

Right now the Blue fff foam. by Dow that I still call Fan Fold, coated on one side with the plastic film, holds its shape well with 225 degrees in oven, for 15-20 minutes baking time. 15 is just a bit short, 17 seemed better, 20 optumum, so I will try some other temps next. I would like to get this down to 8-10 minutes a panel.

My form makes for a completed 8" cord (after trimming), 23" long panel. Of course anything smaller works too. With the maximum panel size, that is 8" cord, 46" wingspan, for a grand total of 368 SqIn of wing area if the tips were left slab shaped and square.

OK I needed a break from my mad science building, so wanted to make a more disposable airplane just to knock around. I saw a thread by GPW and it gave me inspiration. I drew up my own plans in a similar size, sort of, and based it pretty roughly in looks to an Embarer Impanema (gravitywell).

Just to have some fun, and to test the HK Orange RX's I bought, and some different props on a BW clone for a differnt plane. Been making too many complicated and long builds so this looked right for the timing.

Went flat plate so the struts were tried with no KFm steps or spars. I can tape different KFm steps to it later for testing, and could opt for ailerons at some point too. AUW came out at 10.8 ounces which matched the plane I'm testing props and motor for.

I wanted to build one of the SEMFF Combat planes, but also wanted to make it a little more 'scale'. Plan is to fly it as a sport plane so it becomes worth the time and effort since it won't be a disposable combat model.

Yes this is a foam build, made with FFF bluecore fan fold. My first attempt at weathering a plane right out of the basement workshop. Planes get weathered with use, but I wanted to try my hand at giving some 'well used' detail on this one.

Several modifications were ultilized, but the coolest was a newer wing design I came up with to create a thin, full airfoiled wing section that is really fast and easy to make.

A full build log was done and you may have seen it. It appears to be very popular. If you want to check out further details it is located here:

Hope you enjoy the end result as much as I do. The MiG 3 is one of my all time favorite planes. This is the 3rd model of a MiG 3 I have built in different sizes and it was fun and interesting all the way through. Probably won't be my last, either!

Made a De Havilland, DH 94, Moth Minor in roughly 1/10 scale. Entire build is fff Dow Bluecore foam, with some wood in critical areas, and of course average use of plastic, metal, and other bits. Most eveything scratch built, down to the wheels and oleo strut covers.

The design from 1938 was to be the replacement for the Moth Minor. To be mass produced, cheaper and easy to make, with similar performance to the Tigher Moth. WWII put an end to the production with only a few hundred made. Many were pressed into military service, but records are not easy to find. So Mine is done in a 'proposed' Desert Camoflage Scheme, because it is easy to see in flight in my 'Green' Summer backgrounds, or 'White' Winter nothingness.

The aircraft was certified aerobatic capable, and the moments, areas, aspect ratios, and all promise it to be a sweet flying machine.

A classic Beauty that just gets me down deep somewhere and had to have it!

To all my friends that like to check out my build logs, here is the link:

My first Tiger Moth was a modified GWS Pico Moth. It lasted about 4 years and had everything in it from NiCds, to Lipos, GWS 'A' drive, direct drive, and 300 Outrunner. Strong like bull, and flew so good. RIP. It finially got so old I just had to retire it.

My second was the GWS Tiger Moth 400. Just had to do it. Did many Scale Mods, and upgrades. Still with us, and flys good, but not the same as my original.

The third is shown in more detail further down in my Blog. A Great Planes ElectraFly Moth. Great flyer, very scale looking, and fragile. I haven't had many failures except one crack in the lower wing, upon assembly, but I've seen the carnage on others. I'll add a picture of it here too, just so all 3 can show their Tiger Moth Heritage all in one place.

Last a group of Tiger Moths in Omaha, at our indoor facility prior to flying formation one day.

A little off topic, for me, an aircraft designer. The USS Santo II, an 8 foot long Battleship hull and decking. Made it for the 4th of July, 2010.

Used a GWS S400 Gearbox, 6.6:1 ratio, tied to a home made 2 blade aluminum prop (4"). Old AM radio, Aircraft brushed ESC, and a standard servo tied to the large rudder.

Probably unsikable, as the original USS Santo I, survived over 500 bombardments last year, and had 1/4 the bottom of the hull ripped away if you count the holes too. It was more like a 4 foot PT Boat. After it served it's Country in 2009, while my back was turned, someone tried to scuttle it, but it just wouldn't sink. Got to love the words foam, and flotation.

Object this year to place as much 'toys' on the deck as possible and manuver out to a wonderful location on the lake to salute a tribute to the good old USA.

Algae growth prevented much headway as the prop was fouling fairly close to shore. Hot summer, and lake needs a dredging. So one 11 1/2 year old girl really thought it was special to pilot such a large bath toy on open water. Her pride and happiness made it a cool experiance!

What the heck, might as well add these 2 to my Blog. Yes, everyone should own a Slow Stick.

My latest Slow Stick is from a stock piled kit from maybe 4-5 years ago, built brushless, but modified soon after to a Park 400, 4200kv inrunner, with 6.6:1 gears, swinging an 11x7 APC SF Prop. Getting 23 amps on fresh charge, 3 cell 2100mah 16c, Impulse Lipo. Yes that is 253 watts on a slow Stick. So how does it fly? 1 foot takeoff, straight up 90 degree climbout, as far as you want to go. Have flown it in 23-25 MPH winds, gusting to 30. Yes we have been doing that for years. Got to see it to believe it. Pitchy in that wind, yes, controllable, yes, swirling the old stick though. 250 watts of fun.

The Pico stick must be about 6 or 7 years old now. I had made the entire fuselage, servo attachment, battery plate, etc, from carbon fiber. Used to fly this with SammyB at Valencia High in California. Boy I miss Sammy and those days. Still flying strong, on the original GWS 'A' drive, brushed. Coolest thing is 10 minute flights on a 250mah 2 cell. Keep tempting myself to add the 'E' drive with ducted fan motor for around a 50% increase in power, and still under 3 amps. But why, I fly it in the front yard and indoors mostly now. A real putter!

I always seem to forget I want to post pictures to my blog on some projects I've done. So tonight I'll add something trying to catch up.

I always wanted a Bobcat type airplane. Seen them fly, they handle well, fly quite fast and seem stable. So during last winter I made a super light weight, but strong, micro version for indoor speed flying, and some light wind outdoor duty,

Wouldn't change a thing. It's stable, fast enough for the power system used, and gets 10 minute flights with a 2 cell 250mah Lipo (you heard me)! I can even ROG with reasonable tracking even without rudder or stearable nose wheel. Have to get some speed up, but then the ailerons make for a very slow controlable ground stearing effect (limited of course).

She can bank and yank so quick, almost no loss of altitude can be noticed with all the side areas. The NACA low drag air intakes work well to keep everything cool, and the sweetest thing is coming in for a landing, you can high alpha until the wings rock gently back and forth, settle into a nose high touch down, and never stall!

Wish I could transform my drawings and templates into plans but I seem to stay behind the curve on learning CAD, even though I used it 20 years ago in Aerospace, but just to design machine language programs to cut out full scale parts for the Big Girls!

Took the Conan O'Brian piloted Autogyro out in some 8-10 MPH winds, after having probably 12 flights on it. Probably going to be packing everything up to move, and I don't like autogyros enough to care to deal with it.

So the wind starts to really pick up as I sat there with a friend sorting out interference on channel 43 (72mhz). By the time I switched out the crystal to channel 15, the winds were really picking up! 15-17 mph maybe, let's go!

Took it off, 1 foot, climbed like a glider in a convection tunnel! Brought it around, pitchy to say the least. Dropping like a rock in the tail wind since the rotors no longer are driven by the head wind. Hands full, but way cool. Dorked it once, and had to glue 1 LG back on, tape a split prop, and a tear in the fuselage.

Wait 5 minutes for glue to dry, now winds 20 mph? and gusting bad. Let's go! Incredable! Large movements needed to counteract all that turbulence, but cool. Couldn't high alpha it to slow it down because the wind made it climb like an Estes Rocket. Came around, had to add throttle for the dropping effect, had to use elevator to correct for zooming climb once I was back in the wind, and Wamm! Happend so fast that it was the sound of impact and all the tiny bits you don't see in the photo scattering down wind at 25 MPH that revealed the early arrival.

Am I strange? Must be because I'm still smiling at how cool the impact was! (Guess I don't crash enough anymore). Oh, but Conan is smiling too. Best part the motor and gear is now free to go in something else that I will want to fly more often than the Twirl Autogyro!

Well I wanted to make something that could be flown in the street and front yard where I live.

I wanted it to be able to land real slow. Climb well enough, but fly slow is the key. Undercamber comes to mind.

Simple, cheap materials, gear on hand, quick. Heck I want two so I can do combat with a friend when they come over.

Saw the Blue Baby thread in Scratchbuilt Foamies, and figured why design something, there is already a plan, and everyone says it flys well enough to make it a primary trainer. Sounds good to me. Besides my daughter keeps wanting to fly my planes and she needs something crash worthy.

Warbirds combat, right, so here it is Blue Baby Combat Warbirds. One Russian, One German. Not WWII stuff, but what if tomorrow these two ex-rivals decides to go for it...............................

Maiden for both was this afternoon. Though wind was blowing 5-10 mph, and kicked up to 7-14 mph by the time the Germans took to the sky. Not disappointed, they fly like I figured. Flying on the wing again, feels good.

Joey? Sammy? Ready to do battle.............................

Fred

Added a few pictures of a Flaot Plane conversion. Went to a 12mm geared brushless inrunner on the IPS drive, added a real spar to the wing, and floats.

Freddie B

Addicted to building...

About Freddie B

Biography

Been in manufacturing, aerospace, and Real Estate industries most of my life. Married twice, 5 children. A life of constructing, engineering, and repairs now culminate in the art of design and construction of model aircraft.